Three Lions icon John Barnes has backed England to win their World Cup group "comfortably" - but expects a run to another final is unlikely.
Manager Gareth Southgate named his squad for the tournament last Thursday and the chosen 26 players will jet to Qatar this week ahead of next Monday's fixture against Iran. England also take on United States and Wales in Group B, so they will be confident of reaching the knockout stage.
The Three Lions were semi-finalists in Russia four-and-a-half years ago and went one better at Euro 2020, progressing to the final and falling just short against Italy. This trajectory would suggest England have a realistic chance of bringing the trophy home from the Middle East, but their recent form has diminished expectations.
Southgate's side finished bottom of a Nations League group which included Italy, Hungary and Germany, failing to win a single game as they suffered a humiliating relegation to League B. Barnes, who scored 11 goals in 79 appearances for his country, claims the first thing on England's agenda is to "get their confidence back" as they embark on their campaign in the Middle East.
"If you saw before the Nations League fixtures where we got to the final of Euro 2020, we were playing with so much confidence," the Liverpool legend said. "With England then, you know what you're going to get from them in terms of consistency and performance.
"It's the same players and the same team, they're lacking confidence, results breed confidence, and they've had some bad results of late. We [England] still have good players. I feel that what they must do to resolve this is to come up with a way of playing and stick to it."
While Barnes insists England "can beat anybody" when they are at their best, he views an exit at the quarter-final or semi-final stage as the most likely outcome in Qatar. "The draw always plays a big part in the outcome," he added.
"All you can ask Gareth to do is maximise potential of the team and that means that we should be getting to the latter stages of the competition, which means we should be going to the quarter-finals. With a bit of luck, we can go all the way but if we get to the quarter-finals and we play against a Belgium, for example, they can beat us.
"Yes, we can beat them as well. But we shouldn't expect to win the World Cup because 'we're England and we're the best team in the world'. We are not the best team in the world but we're in the top five or six which means we should be getting to the quarter finals and semi-finals."
Crucial to England's hopes of a first World Cup triumph since 1966 will be getting off to a morale-boosting strong start in the group stage. Barnes is confident the Three Lions will have little trouble in this respect, tipping them to finish top of Group B with aplomb.
"Wales will be England’s toughest opponent, because they will know English players the best of the teams in our group," he said. "It'll be like playing in the league against your mates, not to mention the history between us and this this their first World Cup for a long time.
"I feel like that's going to be the most difficult game for England, but I can see us winning all three games. Wales will have a lot of hope and confidence to get a result, but I don't think they're good enough to really cause England many problems. So, I expect England to comfortably win all their group [games]."
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Regarding the business end of the tournament, the Italia '90 icon expects the traditional heavy-hitters will be in the mix, stressing that teams which gel best will overcome those with the bigger individual star power. "When France won the World Cup in 2018, it was about the team. When Italy won the Euros, it wasn't about how bright their star players shone," Barnes said.
The former Watford man concluded: "You can't look beyond the usual suspects. Brazil, Belgium, Spain, England, Germany, there's great teams there, so it will be exciting. There will be surprises along the way and maybe some [unexpected] teams might get to a quarter-final. But, in terms of winning it, not many teams have won the World Cup - it will be the same old faces."
John Barnes was speaking at the Panini sticker book giveaway in Canary Wharf, the official sticker book collection for the 2022 Qatar World Cup. For more information on Panini visit https://www.panini.co.uk/
